The Rio Blanco County Board of Commissioners held a brief special meeting Friday.
Commissioners renewed an annual cooperative road project agreement with the U.S. Forest Service (USFS). The agreement allows for both parties to cooperate in the planning, survey, design, construction, reconstruction, improvement and maintenance of certain Forest Service roads. This year’s agreement documents the cooperation of both parties on the New Castle-Buford road project.
Commissioners also approved a resolution “opposing the support of undocumented, illegal and/or uninvited migrants.”
“This resolution says we’re not a sanctuary city [county] and that we’re putting the interests of Rio Blanco County citizens first,” explained Commissioner Doug Overton.
The board briefly discussed the resolution at the Tuesday, Feb. 27 regular meeting. The Town of Rangely passed a similar resolution earlier in February.
Responding to a question about the Tuesday discussion, Overton said, “Briefly we discussed different ways we could put Rio Blanco citizens above the immigrants and found out that our hands are pretty much tied, but we can pass this resolution that says we’re not a sanctuary city and we’re going to try and put our citizens first.”
Commissioner Jennifer O’Hearon clarified that the county’s “hands are tied” at the federal level, in the inability to ask someone about their legal status in the country. “We’re still open to that conversation [doing an ordinance] if something is to come up.”
In part, the resolution addresses “…cascading impacts of migrant relocations from Denver or Carbondale pose a risk to Rio Blanco County, its citizens, and service providers; and whereas Rio Blanco is seeing a record need for public benefits due to high inflation, we are also experiencing cuts in federal and state funding along with increased expectations and unfunded mandates from the federal and state governments; and whereas, as Rio Blanco County is diligent in allocating resources for its citizens, there is no surplus of resources including shelter, social services, public health, and public safety to support the needs of any number of undocumented, illegal, or uninvited migrants.”
